Does anyone else focus intensely while driving LFS? I definitely do, more so than any other game I've played in my life. Someone in the other room will have to call my name three times before I even realize they're doing so. I've missed phone calls because I never heard it ringing. I've been late for work because "just a couple more laps" quickly turned into ten more because I was only a tenth off my pb and wanted to break it.

One of the things I love most about LFS is that it almost forces you to find "the zone", where everything else falls away and it's just you and the car. You feel the tiniest of bumps, sense keenly the dynamic weight of the car as it shifts during cornering, feel the ebb and flow of the moment as you flirt with the limit. Ayrton Senna described it beautifully:

Quote from Ayrton Senna :

Suddenly I realised that I was no longer driving the car consciously. I was driving it by a kind of instinct, only I was in a different dimension. It was like I was in a tunnel. Not only the tunnel under the hotel but the whole circuit was a tunnel. I was just going and going, more and more and more and more. I was way over the limit but still able to find even more.

I've definitely gotten into this trance state occasionally while driving this sim; fortunately it never frightened me because I'm never in any real danger. I remember distinctly during a few races in the past in which everything has clicked wonderfully and I'm suddenly right near my pb pace. And I'm catching the guy in front of me for 3rd place at over a second a lap. I push a little more. I catch the T1 curb beautifully, the car feels glued to the circuit as I fly out of T1 with more speed than I ever have before. I carry that speed through the lap. The barriers seem to move back. The circuit seems twice as wide as it actually is. Time seems to slow down. Thoughts of making a small error or spinning are nonexistent. This car won't spin, it can't spin, because I am in complete control of my own destiny. Faster. Smoother. More precise. For five laps in a row I break my own pb, often by less than a tenth. And I don't even realize it. I'm so focused on the moment that I don't notice until the checkered flag. What a fanstastic feeling. Riding that wonderfully subtle, elusive wave. So fleeting that by the time you realize it, it's already gone. Feeling the limit. Touching it. Knowing it's there. Daring to push right to the edge and stand on the precipice of disaster. Living it. Living for Speed.

You wondefully described it. Yeah, I've been in the zone for a few times. I'm still looking to find the way into it ever since. I broke my pb in every lap, everything was so perfect. I went to sleep, only to find the next day, that it's over, and I'm as slow as always, and just can't do it again. :/

I quite frequently get into that trance-state. Seems to mostly happen when I'm driving the FOX at SO all alone, though. However, while driving online I'm extremely focused and often miss calls and the like as you said. Not always entranced, but high focused. Quite often I find my heart racing and I'm sweating perfusely, especially while have a good close race with someone.

I get into "the zone" in every longer race (> 15 laps), but I only missed calls when the ringing was drowned out by a high-revving engine from my headset or I didn't want to give up the race...

Sometimes I find myself in a trance-like state, just driving, no distractions, dodging the pink bunnies in the meadow, asking the clockwork postman to stick my wheels back on, wondering why my friend Dave is trying to kill me with a plastic spatula.

Then I wake up. Only seems to happen to me on Aston National.

I wish that could happen to me more often, but it just doesn't - not without a few Guinness handy anyway. In close competition I do get worked up a bit, and am very focussed, but those moments when everything else fades seem fleeting.

They seem to happen much more on difficult combos though, like FE4.

This has only happened to me a couple of times on LFS and it's always the longer races, 15 laps and up. Being like that allowed me to get my PB with the FXR @ BL1 while driving in the 1st round of the IGTC, im lucky if i can get to within half a second of it now.

You'll find that that with smoother racing and stuff it'll help improve your times alot, just being smooth and so on.

I've only had it a couple of times, but it's a great feeling when it does happen. Things seem to flow so much better and I've done a few laptimes that I haven't got near again even though I think I've improved as a driver.

Sometime it happens, more often I just have some nice flowing laps.
Track is wide, car is in control to inches, birds are singing, waterfall is cooking, wind sounds like beutiful violin music, SMACK!!! REAR END OF NOOB IS IN MY FACE! (this is my experience from SO)

But I like the flowing feeling, when you feel that you can make a slide in a highspeed turn but you wont loose control....

Yes, happens quite often when actively trying to beat personal pb's. Sometimes I'll zone out to the point that I'm thinking about something else but still putting in quick, consistent laps almost automatically. It's a similar sensation to arriving at work but not remembering the journey.

I had that this week. ATC Quicksilver tried to distract me. But instead I came into some kind of flow, I started typing, and was still doing 1:00.5x (Aston Club / FOX).

Sometimes I have it, when I have it I'm usually one or two tenths slower then on my max. When I'm on my max, I sometimes hold my breath for a corner, or corner combination. I don't do that very contiously.. This sometimes brings me into a state where I can do faster then I think I could have done. Or hold a pace I didn't believe was possible. How consistant and fast it was. Pretty cool stuff.

I can confirm that, its like he cut his brain in half, half watching what I was typing the other driving bloody fast.

I have a sort of laid back totally relaxed driving style, I find that when I focus I become tense, which is fatal using a ps2 pad because of how sensative it is. Usually I go into a kind of angry trance when I have been crashed out and know I need to push really hard, or in an endurance race when I know I need to do some consistent fast times.

Yep, I can zone out on many things/tasks. Its the only way you can your all to something. To live in the instant and forget about past/future.

One of the most handy skills to learn and perfect in life.

Quote from ATC Quicksilver :

its like he cut his brain in half

I read that an instantly got a mental picture of a brain cut in half down the centre, and now my head hurts. I need some advil...

My computer is in the basement. I have 2 lightbulbs burning when I'm racing LFS. Those 2 lightbulbs are run by a switch at the top of the steps. I use headphones, so I can't hear anything. My wife is usually upstairs watching TV. If she needs something, she can't yell down because I won't hear from using the headphones. So, she blinks the lights. Now, I'm in the basement, completely underground, so you can imagine it gets pretty dark when the lights go out. I never notice it when she blinks the lights, LOL.

I don't know if it's like what Lateralus describes fits me, but sometimes I find my self more confident of pushing the car further and further with success, but then sometimes I try to do the same and end doing some noobish error, everyone who raced me in the CTRA Single Seater server must have seen me go off the track all by my self :P I also tend to get angry if I do some mistakes so I loose all my concentration for a lap or two, but if I'm on a good day I can drive faster that what I imagine I could.

Yeh I find that I will sometimes get frustrated at not being able to find the 2 or 3 tenths I gain when 'in the zone', which leads to me pushing too hard and crashing.

When no one is around me, I'm rather relaxed, but when there is a pack of cars around me I tend to concentrate more, especially since my FPS drops to around 5-10.

I had that same relaxed feeling prior to the UKCT Internal league race today, where I felt amazing, pumping out lap after lap in perfection (still slow becuase I had race % of fuel in practicing), bu it was just like time stood still. Sadly that whole thing died once we started Qualifying for the race and actually doing the race...

Zen in the Art of Live For Speed?

An interesting article here:http://www.shambhalasun.com/in ... amp;task=view&id=2098

EDIT: Hmmm ... on checking the link, the site seems to have fallen over. Oh well, here's a cached version 'till it's fixed.

my state of mind don't really change , i stay calm yet im a very aggressive person l, i try my best and if something go's wrong you don't stand near me

there was a time that id set up my wheel, join a server and instantly get in to that zone. where you are not one with the car, but instead you ARE the car its an amazing feeling, sadly though i never found that zone since giving up weed. i am searching for it thought and when i find it i shal be a happy LFS racer

this game definitly needs full focus, i love that.

Also, this is the first game ever that can get my body temperature up. (also thanks to the g25, of course) It saves money because i don't have to turn on the heater when it's cold in the room.

I think the downside is you can't be competitive when your tired.. i get home tired from work alot, but that's actually realistic. You can't be racing tired in real life either.

Quote from mike20002 :

...Track is wide, car is in control to inches, birds are singing, waterfall is cooking, wind sounds like beutiful violin music, SMACK!!! REAR END OF NOOB IS IN MY FACE! (this is my experience from SO)...

This made me ROFL. I've got that a few times.

I rarely get into the zone when i'm just doing a random public race but i do get it quite a lot in competition. One example is when i had to do a stint in the 24 Hour race at 3 in the morning. I was falling asleep on the straights i was so tired but i still managed to keep the car on the track and still felt part of the car. Another example is in the IGTC round 1 race, I had just taken over the car and we lost a few positions, i was pretty pissed to say the least so I was pushing and pushing and setting low 1'07's consistantly and catching the car infront at almost 1 or 2 seconds per lap. After about 30 laps i ran out of fuel . I find i can never get into this zone when hotlapping.